Call For Gardens

The deadline to apply for the 2027 Tour is June 30th, 2026.

The 2027 Native Plant Garden Tour will take place on Saturday and Sunday, April 3 & 4, 2027

A beloved tradition since 2004, the Theodore Payne Foundation Annual Native Plant Garden Tour showcases the region’s most beautiful and inspiring native plant gardens. This self-guided, two-day event brings together thousands of visitors to experience the power, diversity, and design potential of California native plant landscapes. It’s a weekend of celebration, connection, and inspiration.

Read more about the tour

Theodore Payne Foundation is a nonprofit organization that inspires and educates Southern Californians about the beauty and ecological benefits of California native plants. Located on 22 acres of canyon land in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, our headquarters includes a full-service nursery featuring native plants, seeds, and nature-themed books and merchandise, alongside display gardens, wildland hiking trails, an art gallery, indoor and outdoor educational facilities, and extensive plant production areas. Offering a wide range of public classes, garden tours, and a variety of outreach and advocacy initiatives, we invite all to explore the role of native plants in local ecology, aiming to make the communities of Southern California more beautiful, sustainable, and environmentally friendly.

Visit us! We are open year round (Tuesday–Saturday, 8:30 AM–4:30 PM), and admission is free. 

For garden Hosts, the tour is an opportunity to inspire others, celebrate your hard work, and join a passionate community of native plant advocates.

Sharing your garden helps demystify native landscaping and shows visitors that beauty, biodiversity, and sustainability can go hand-in-hand. It’s also a chance to connect with neighbors, community members, and like-minded individuals who care deeply about plants, place, and the future of our region.

By opening your garden to others, you’re doing more than welcoming visitors—your participation directly supports a growing movement to reimagine what Los Angeles landscapes can be.

As a small nonprofit nestled in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley, the Theodore Payne Foundation faces a big challenge: our mission to share native plant inspiration and education spans an enormous and diverse region. The Annual Native Plant Garden Tour is our largest and most purposeful public outreach event of the year to share with others the crucial role native plants play in a greener, healthier, more sustainable future for our region. This is only possible thanks to our generous Garden Tour Hosts.

Together, we show what’s possible when native plants take root in home gardens, schoolyards, and public spaces across Greater Los Angeles. With over 2,000 attendees, the tour offers a living, blooming vision of what’s possible—at home, at our school, in our community spaces. It demonstrates how:

• 🌼 Native plants can thrive in cultivated gardens
• 🐝 Wildlife habitat can flourish within our neighborhoods
• 💧 Water conservation can be both functional and delightful
• 🧑‍🏫 Educators can create green spaces and bring
  experiential learning opportunities to students
• 🏘️ Community activism can transform public land
• 💚 Individual actions can make a meaningful impact
• 🌎 We’re all deeply connected—to this land, to our local ecology, and to one another

No problem—gardens must be planted with at least 50% California native plants to be considered.

Each year we showcase gardens from all across Los Angeles County. The map of gardens changes each year based on the applications we receive. We aim to group gardens into clusters for easier navigation, and we also look for way points to connect neighborhoods. The biggest factor determining the map each year are the applications we receive—so every application helps shape the map!

Each year, the Theodore Payne Foundation issues an open call for garden applications. After applications are submitted, our team carefully reviews each one and coordinates in-person site visits with applicants. These visits are scheduled in advance and typically last about an hour. Two staff members will meet with the applicant to tour the garden, learn about its development, and answer any questions about participation.

Applicants will be notified of their status by September, possibly earlier.

We value our Garden Tour Hosts greatly! Our goal is to make your experience as smooth, enjoyable, and well-supported, as possible—from the first planning conversation to the last visitor!

In the months leading up to the tour, the Foundation works closely with each host to finalize guidebook content, discuss parking and access logistics, and provide information about insurance coverage and other tour day details.

Each garden is assigned volunteer Docents, who assist during the tour weekend by welcoming visitors, answering basic questions, helping manage the flow of guests, and ensuring the garden space is respected.

In the final month before the tour, we provide a required Garden Tour Orientation, offered on multiple dates and formats (in-person and online). This session brings together Hosts, Docents, and Foundation staff to go over final logistics, provide emergency contact information for the weekend, and share helpful tips.

After the tour, we celebrate with a special appreciation event for all hosts and docents—a heartfelt thank-you for making this event possible!

Each garden is featured on one of the two days of the tour. As a Garden Host, you’ll be expected to:

• Be present during open tour hours (10 AM–5 PM)
• Coordinate with your assigned volunteer Docents in advance to help them get familiar with your garden layout, key features, and any boundaries for visitors
• Greet guests, answer questions, and share your native plant journey throughout the day
• Support a positive, welcoming atmosphere while also taking breaks as needed—this is exactly why Docents are there!

Just as we ask Docents to support you, we ask that Hosts help create a comfortable experience for Docents by ensuring they have access to shade and opportunities for breaks throughout the day. It’s a team effort to make the tour enjoyable and sustainable for everyone involved.

Yes! Gardens can absolutely be co-hosted by multiple people—for example, households, design teams, community groups, or schools. However, we ask that each garden designate one main point of contact, referred to as the “Host.”

This primary Host will receive all communications from the Foundation, including important dates, guidebook details, and insurance forms. The Host can be:

• An adult member of the garden-owning household
• A landscaper or designer (with the garden owner’s permission)
• A community garden steward
• A school educator (with approval from their school principal)

All additional co-hosts are considered part of the “Host Group”—valued partners who help make the tour possible and are warmly encouraged to represent the garden during the event.

You mean a garden can be done? There’s always room for one more plant, right?

Kidding aside, gardens are living, evolving spaces—that’s part of what makes them so magical. We know that no garden is ever truly “finished,” and we welcome a range of landscapes at different stages of maturity. In fact, many visitors enjoy seeing how gardens grow and change from year to year.

Whether this spring is your first season of bloom or your tenth, what matters most is your commitment to native plants and your willingness to share the journey.

Absolutely—yes, if you have applied before you should apply again! Each year, we receive a new set of applications and curate a fresh tour lineup, so even if your garden hasn’t been selected before, we encourage you to try again.

We celebrate a wide diversity of garden styles and sizes, from front yards to backyards, balconies to schools, formal layouts to wild-inspired plantings. In evaluating gardens, we consider:

• At least 50% California native plants
• Located within Los Angeles County
• Garden age: most plants should be in their second year or older, though thoughtful exceptions may be made
• Sufficient parking availability nearby for tour visitors

Selecting gardens is always a thoughtful and challenging process. We weigh both individual garden qualities and broader logistical factors to shape a tour that is inspiring, varied, and geographically accessible.

Some considerations are less about a single garden and more about creating balance across the full tour experience. For example, we aim to:

• Feature both accessible gardens (flatter terrain, wide paths) and those that manage slopes and control erosion.
• Include new gardens and alternate returning favorites.
• Represent a range of design styles, from structured to naturalistic
• Build clusters of gardens in the same area to improve flow and access
• Showcase gardens across the Greater Los Angeles region, as much as applications allow

Even if your garden wasn’t selected in the past, your application is an important part of growing the native plant movement—and we would love to hear from you again!

Email gardentour@theodorepayne.org